“MIXED EMOTIONS”
Last spring I was in my office when Rabbi Bennett walked in. "Are you busy?" he asked. "Let's talk." "What's up?"

"I'm taking the job in St. Louis." I laughed. "Yeah, and I'm applying for the job as senior rabbi." "I'm serious," he insisted. "I'm taking the job in St. Louis." I felt my heart beat faster. All I could do was stare at the picture on my wall. It was a familiar scene from our annual Temple retreat at Wildacres - our daughters eating ice cream at a round table in Little Switzerland. We took the same picture every year. We used it to mark their growth. The girls smiled at me past their ice cream cones. Jim and I were still talking, but I wasn't paying attention to what we were saying. I thought about what we had been through together.

His mother and father had died. He came to New Jersey to officiate at my father's funeral and of course, he and his wife, Amy were with me during my saddest time, the long illness and death of my wife, Susan. We forged a working relationship that was grounded in friendship. We attended piano recitals, watched countless home plays, celebrated birthdays, laughed together and cried together. Our families grew very close. And now, he was taking the job in St. Louis.

What would it be like, I wondered, without Abby, Ethan, and Michelle, without Jim and Amy? Who would lead our congregation? Who would my daughter and I celebrate the holidays with? Who would I talk to when I just wanted to complain? Who would make my daughter her special pasta con broccoli? Who would replace these dearest of friends? Now it is nearly time to say good-bye. Just like the rest of Temple Beth El, my daughter and I have mixed emotions. While we are happy that the Bennett family has the opportunity to return to St. Louis, we are sad that they are moving away.
 
We wish them success. We will miss them. We will treasure the myriad of moments we have shared and will share.

As I write this article at my desk in the Temple office I look again at the picture of the two little girls who've lived so much of their lives with each other. They smile out at me past their ice cream cones, past the past, past the present, and out into the future.
 
L'hitraot.

Arthur B. Kramer, Executive Director